Phoenix gets Alliance of American Football team, will name coach Friday
May 16, 2018, 12:54 PM | Updated: 3:18 pm
Some of the newly finished stadium construction, foreground, at Sun Devil Stadium starts to fill up with fans prior to an NCAA college football game against Northern Arizona Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Phoenix will become the fifth city to have a team with the Alliance of American Football.
A press conference will be held Friday at Sun Devil Stadium, where the games will be played, to announce the head coach.
The AAF will be an eight-team, 10-week league beginning Feb. 9, the week after the Super Bowl. There will be two playoff rounds, then a championship game the weekend of April 26.
The AAF website lists Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Memphis and Orlando as the other four official teams to have joined the league.
Former ASU coach Dennis Erickson will coach the Salt Lake team. Over his five years in Tempe, the Sun Devils went 31-31 and appeared in two bowl games.
Erickson was also the head coach of the Seahawks and 49ers.
Atlanta will be coached by Brad Childress, a former Vikings head coach and assistant for several other NFL teams. He has also coached at the collegiate level, including Northern Arizona.
Mike Singletary, a member of the Pro and College Hall of Fame, will coach Memphis. He was a two-time Defensive Player of the Year for the Chicago Bears.
He was the head coach of the 49ers from 2008-10.
Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and 10-year pro Steve Spurrier will coach Orlando. He coached at the collegiate level for 26 years, compiling a 228-89 record and appearing in 21 bowl games.
Spurrier is one of four people to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player and a coach.
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